Court gives green light to Adani Abbot Point expansion

A COMMUNITY group's bid to stop Adani expanding the Abbot Point Coal Terminal has been denied in Brisbane Supreme Court.

Whitsunday Residents Against Dumping's legal challenge to the State Government's approval of the port's expansion near Bowen was dismissed on Thursday.

The expansion is needed to service Adani's sprawling $21.7 billion Carmichael coal mine.

An Adani spokesman said the company was not commenting on the case but getting on with the job at hand.

While the government has assured concerned citizens the proposals will undergo some of the strictest conditions ever required of such a project, detractors are not convinced, saying Adani has already breached its Abbot Point pollution licence during Cyclone Debbie.

WRAD spokeswoman Sandra Williams said the court's decision was like a "body blow” and it was a "dark day for the reef”.

Ms Williams said recent mass coral bleaching made it clear the reef was in jeopardy and the terminal would have a "disastrous impact” by creating "a shipping super highway on the reef”.

She said the project would contribute to climate change and warming sea temperatures, posing a threat to the health of corals and the 70,000 jobs that depended on them.

"We have a critical window in which to act to protect our coral reefs,” she said.

"Instead the Queensland and Federal Governments are doing all they can to support Adani with free water, royalties reductions and pushing for a $1 billion taxpayer-funded loan to help get their dangerous project off the ground.”

It is proposed the construction of the terminal would bring about 300 jobs to the region in its first stages and about 450 in its second stage, with nearly 500 people indirectly employed as a result.

This would be a boon to the region, struggling under the crippling coal downturn.

The Central Queensland mine would include six open-cut pits, five underground mines across an area five times the size of Sydney Harbour, and the expansion would allow Adani to export about an extra 70 million tonnes of coal.